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Well it’s better than nothing I guess!!

Blimey. *Books visit to Phantasialand*

Because it looks (equally predictably) rubbish. No need to defend trash, it's not like Merlin actually care about this other than making easy money. They know they can pay for nothing, do a half arsed job and people will still go along with it. Most the criticism of it I've seen online has been done with humour of disbelief anyway. You don't have to like everything by default for fear of being seen as "negative". True there's always some who will complain regardless, but just look at this. Seeing how people will defend the rubbish being fed them by Merlin (they're capable of better, look at Wicker Man), more because they have something against people's opinions than because they actually like the attraction being made, is sadder in my opinion. If they made anything entertaining and original, I'd be all over it in positivity!

All they're going to do is cover the rest of the Charlie façade behind wooden poles. I wouldn't be surprised if the entrance is left like that. It doesn't even match the stone of the famous towers. Also the Burger Kitchen next door has had the remaining colour sucked out of it.

I am all for the public waking up to Merlin's dominant position in the market and forcing change on the company but negative press attention won't bring about that change. As people go elsewhere Varneys nonsensical business strategy kicks in where he treats the exercise as damage control and limits spending. The best way I see the parks getting better is Varney being kicked out and that will not happen while the shareholders and the board support him. What is needed is a a potential successor to be on the board while confidence is destroyed in his leadership. Unfortunately its an unlikely scenario. A likely change heading our way is an increase in competitors quality and new competition popping up. I think an unexpected consequence of the death of the high street will be the rise of smaller attractions taking advantage of reduced rent in large empty shops and warehouses. A market that Merlin will likely end up being pioneers of. Hopefully it results in improvements to the resorts as they end up competing with new comers, improving smaller parks and even themselves as they try and attract people out of cities.

That looks pretty weak. Tiny themed portion of the building and just cover the rest in timber.

Japan do. And technically you can sit on the floor in any queue sooooooooo...

This is M£rlin remember, course they ain't gonna bleedin' paint those fences or repave that flooring. Not gonna knock this until trying it of course, but there's no doubt exterior-wise this is looking like a contender with Walking Dead: The Ride for being the worst outdoor queue line for any attraction I know of.

We finally have a reveal to the entrance of the Towers Dungeon, here’s a look in all it’s glory! Image- Richard Paul Matthews from Theme Park Global

Maybe they realised it was perhaps a bit too much? That or they just hadn't updated since Fright Nights properly. I guess the thing to always keep in mind is that it is now technically £7 to park. Any higher prices are there to deter people from taking more time from staff, who could be doing other things, or taking more time at the barrier, which makes it longer for everyone to get out. £7 is still a lot to pay, given the quality of the car park. And I don't believe Thorpe can really change the gravel car park - it has to remain gravel due to the location near the lake and act as flood relief effectively (or something like that I think?). So they need to strike a balance of charging the right amount for the quality of it.